NAME

inetd - internet “super-server”

SYNOPSIS

inetd [-d] [-Rrate] [configuration_files...]

DESCRIPTION

The inetd program should be run at boot time by /etc/rc (see rc(8)). It
then listens for connections on certain internet sockets. When a
connection is found on one of its sockets, it decides what service the
socket corresponds to, and invokes a program to service the request. The
server program is invoked with the service socket as its standard input,
output and error descriptors. After the program is finished, inetd
continues to listen on the socket (except in some cases which will be
described below). Essentially, inetd allows running one daemon to invoke
several others, reducing load on the system.
The options available for inetd:-d,---debug
Turns on debugging.
-R,---raterate
Specifies the maximum number of times a service can be invoked in
one minute; the default is 1000.
---version
Shows the version.
---help
Shows the help.
Upon execution, inetd reads its configuration information from a
configuration pathnames on the command line, by default, /etc/inetd.confand/etc/initd.d. If the configuration pathname is a directory, all the
files in the directory are read like a configuration file. All of the
configuration files are read and merged. There must be an entry for each
field in the configuration file, with entries for each field separated by
a tab or a space. Comments are denoted by a ‘‘#’’ at the beginning of a
line. There must be an entry for each field. The fields of the
configuration file are as follows:
service name
socket type
protocol
wait/nowait
user
server program
server program arguments
There are two types of services that inetd can start: standard and
TCPMUX. A standard service has a well-known port assigned to it; it may
be a service that implements an official Internet standard or is a BSD-
specific service. As described in RFC 1078, TCPMUX services are
nonstandard services that do not have a well-known port assigned to them.
They are invoked from inetd when a program connects to the “tcpmux” well-
known port and specifies the service name. This feature is useful for
adding locally-developed servers.
The service-name entry is the name of a valid service in the file
/etc/services. For “internal” services (discussed below), the service
name must be the official name of the service (that is, the first entry
in /etc/services). For TCPMUX services, the value of the service-name
field consists of the string “tcpmux” followed by a slash and the
locally-chosen service name. The service names listed in /etc/services
and the name “help” are reserved. Try to choose unique names for your
TCPMUX services by prefixing them with your organization’s name and
suffixing them with a version number.
The socket-type should be one of “stream”, “dgram”, “raw”, “rdm”, or
“seqpacket”, depending on whether the socket is a stream, datagram, raw,
reliably delivered message, or sequenced packet socket. TCPMUX services
must use “stream”.
The protocol must be a valid protocol as given in /etc/protocols.
Examples might be “tcp” or “udp”. TCPMUX services must use “tcp”.
The wait/nowait entry specifies whether the server that is invoked by
inetd will take over the socket associated with the service access point,
and thus whether inetd should wait for the server to exit before
listening for new service requests. Datagram servers must use “wait”, as
they are always invoked with the original datagram socket bound to the
specified service address. These servers must read at least one datagram
from the socket before exiting. If a datagram server connects to its
peer, freeing the socket so inetd can received further messages on the
socket, it is said to be a “multi-threaded” server; it should read one
datagram from the socket and create a new socket connected to the peer.
It should fork, and the parent should then exit to allow inetd to check
for new service requests to spawn new servers. Datagram servers which
process all incoming datagrams on a socket and eventually time out are
said to be “single-threaded”. Comsat(8), (biff(1)) and talkd(8) are both
examples of the latter type of datagram server. Tftpd(8) is an example
of a multi-threaded datagram server.
Servers using stream sockets generally are multi-threaded and use the
“nowait” entry. Connection requests for these services are accepted by
inetd, and the server is given only the newly-accepted socket connected
to a client of the service. Most stream-based services operate in this
manner. Stream-based servers that use “wait” are started with the
listening service socket, and must accept at least one connection request
before exiting. Such a server would normally accept and process incoming
connection requests until a timeout. TCPMUX services must use “nowait”.
The user entry should contain the user name of the user as whom the
server should run. This allows for servers to be given less permission
than root.
The server-program entry should contain the pathname of the program which
is to be executed by inetd when a request is found on its socket. If
inetd provides this service internally, this entry should be “internal”.
The serverprogramarguments should be just as arguments normally are,
starting with argv[0], which is the name of the program. If the service
is provided internally, the word “internal” should take the place of this
entry.
The inetd program provides several “trivial” services internally by use
of routines within itself. These services are “echo”, “discard”,
“chargen” (character generator), “daytime” (human readable time), and
“time” (machine readable time, in the form of the number of seconds since
midnight, January 1, 1900). All of these services are tcp based. For
details of these services, consult the appropriate RFC from the Network
Information Center.
The inetd program rereads its configuration file when it receives a
hangup signal, SIGHUP. Services may be added, deleted or modified when
the configuration file is reread.

TCPMUX

RFC 1078 describes the TCPMUX protocol: ‘‘A TCP client connects to a
foreign host on TCP port 1. It sends the service name followed by a
carriage-return line-feed <CRLF>. The service name is never case
sensitive. The server replies with a single character indicating
positive (+) or negative (-) acknowledgment, immediately followed by an
optional message of explanation, terminated with a <CRLF>. If the reply
was positive, the selected protocol begins; otherwise the connection is
closed.’’ The program is passed the TCP connection as file descriptors 0
and 1.
If the TCPMUX service name begins with a ‘‘+’’, inetd returns the
positive reply for the program. This allows you to invoke programs that
use stdin/stdout without putting any special server code in them.
The special service name “help” causes inetd to list TCPMUX services in
inetd.conf.

ERRORMESSAGES

The inetd server logs error messages using syslog(3). Important error
messages and their explanations are:
service/protocol server failing (looping), service terminated.
The number of requests for the specified service in the past minute
exceeded the limit. The limit exists to prevent a broken program or a
malicious user from swamping the system. This message may occur for
several reasons: 1) there are lots of hosts requesting the service within
a short time period, 2) a ’broken’ client program is requesting the
service too frequently, 3) a malicious user is running a program to
invoke the service in a ’denial of service’ attack, or 4) the invoked
service program has an error that causes clients to retry quickly. Use
the [-R] option, as described above, to change the rate limit. Once the
limit is reached, the service will be reenabled automatically in 10
minutes.
service/protocol: No such user ’user’, service ignored
service/protocol: getpwnam: user: No such user
No entry for user exists in the passwd file. The first message occurs
when inetd (re)reads the configuration file. The second message occurs
when the service is invoked.
service: can’t set uid numberservice: can’t set gid number
The user or group ID for the entry’s user is invalid.